Robbie Coltrane, star of the yet-to-be-topped police drama Cracker, is exploring the weird and wonderful places off the beaten path in the UK in the new DVD Robbie Coltrane: Incredible Britain. Terrific, wonderful — I’m sure he’s brilliant in it as he is in darn near everything he’s ever put his hand to.
But check out this interview with Coltrane by Luaine Lee of the McClatchy-Tribune News Service for some of his insights into not only this new DVD, but the world at large. In particular he has an interesting riff on acting vs. “normal” jobs:
“The more dull the job the less likely you were ever to get fired. People made a deal with themselves that they were going with security and not necessarily much fulfillment. But that’s not true anymore. They’re laying off people who work in banks by the thousands. I think we’re all going to be gypsies and vagabonds one of these days.”
And don’t forget to check out an interview with Coltrane’s Cracker co-star Geraldine Somerville (Jane Penhaligon) in 30 Years of British Television, out now.
Riffing on a remark made by Jane Tranter, the BBC’s head of fiction, at a recent Royal Television Society event, The Guardian’s Leigh Holmwood asked the very interesting question:
Should TV drama be taken as seriously as other forms of more ‘high art’? And has it really supplanted the novel as the “narrative of our times”?
Even more intriguing than the question were some of the answers Holmwood received such as this one:
I’m not convinced. Television is culturally extremely important but to say the TV drama has supplanted the novel as the “narrative of our times” is perhaps a step too far. The novel is still incredibly important – book sales are high and the novel has great influence over other art forms, in a way that television does not.
At first blush this sounds right, but even in the UK, book sales are not as high as all that. And as much as they would like to deny it, the type of books that are actually selling are of no greater intellectual weight than what passes over bookseller counters in the States: James Patterson potboilers, bodice-rippers and party-political screeds, mostly. A far more telling answer is one of the most recent on The Guardian page:
Last time I had a long flight, I didn’t take along a book. I took series one of The West Wing to watch on an iPod. Drama – as proven by The Sopranos, The Wire, and even pulp TV ‘airport’ fiction such as Lost and 24, can be every bit as engaging as a good book, and – thanks to ongoing narratives – can last a lifetime (or seven seasons…)
Last month in my entry about British TV Steven Moffat taking over the reins at Doctor Who, I mentioned that the writer's credits included Coupling, Jekyll and Press Gang. Since then it's been brought to my attention that not everyone in the US knows Press Gang, which is a very good point, and a very sad state of affairs. (Although it aired on the US cable station Nickelodeon at some point, it has yet to receive a North American VHS or DVD release. Get yourself a region free DVD player and treat yourself to the UK boxed set available on Amazon's UK site.)
Where to begin? Technically Press Gang was a children's television show that ran on ITV in the UK between 1989 and 1993. I say "technically" because, though it was aimed at a young audience and starred young people, it remains in many ways one of the most grown up shows ever made.
Now we're not in the Beverly Hills 90210 land of "grown up" television here, where "grown up" is shorthand for heavy-handed "very special" episodes about drinking, drugs and pregnancy that have plagued television in one form or another since the '50s. While Press Gang hit upon drug abuse and gun control in some of its episodes, the series as a whole concerned itself more with what it's like to be a teenager during those moments when the curtain slips and you catch a glimpse of the darker, more complex workings of the world around you.
The teens in this case work for the Junior Gazette, a newspaper affiliated with the town's major daily that concentrates on news relevant to young people. Nearly all of the writers, editors and other personnel have been forced (or "press ganged," if you will) to work on the paper by their school as a disciplinary measure, in many cases the last stop before out and out expulsion.
The Junior Gazette is run by control freak editor Lynda Day (Julia Sawalha, better known Stateside as daughter Saffy on Absolutely Fabulous) who rules her newsroom with an iron fist, very much a junior exaggeration of Margaret Thatcher. Her constant foil/sometimes love interest Spike (Dexter Fletcher, an English actor), a smart-ass American newly transplanted to the UK, brings her out of herself even as he infuriates her. Other characters include shy overachiever Sarah (Kelda Holmes), Lynda's loyal assistant editor Kenny (Lee Ross), and money-obsessed ad salesman (salesboy?) Colin (Paul Reynolds).
While it's hard to believe Spike's one-liners were ever very funny, there is a great deal of genuinely effective humor in Press Gang. Like most of Moffat's programs, the funny moments in this one are almost always derived from what the audience knows about the characters before they open their mouths. (Check out the clip above for a beautiful example of this.)
But be warned, this is not a comedy, but a drama that often has light moments. People die in Press Gang, and their deaths have consequences. And in one of the best pieces of dialog from the entire series, Lynda Day tells us a thing or two about consequences:
Look, I'm sorry you died, OK? I do care, but to be perfectly honest with you, I don't care a lot. You had a choice. You took the drugs. You died. Are you seriously claiming no one warned you it was dangerous? Pardon my saying, but it takes a lot to convince you there's a health risk.
I mean have you had a look at the world lately? Just how dumb do you think it's safe to be around here? There's plenty of stuff going on that kills you and you don't get warned at all. So sticking your head in a crocodile you were told about is not calculated to get my sympathy.
You're dead and I do care. But you were weak and stupid and you made a bad choice. And actually that isn't a crime. It just happens to have the death penalty. You had a warning, you had a choice. You got it wrong. Sorry. That's life for you.
Leave it to the creator of that unstoppable champion of right and wrong, Horace Rumpole, to cry foul when the Powers That Be dare to tamper with the classics. Writer John Mortimer, creator of Rumpole of the Bailey and the gentleman who wrote a screenplay for the 1981 television adaptation of Evelyn Waugh's novel Brideshead Revisited, told BBC Radio 4's Today program that he didn't like what he was hearing about the forthcoming cinematic retelling of that classic tale.
In particular, Mortimer objected to rumors that the new film, set to hit British theaters later this year, avoids the religious and homosexual undertones of the story of Oxford students Charles Ryder and Teddy-bear loving Lord Sebastian Flyte. [Taking a quick look at the trailer above does give some fans of the original series pause.]
Leaving aside recent revelations in Valerie Grove's authorized biography, A Voyage Round John Mortimer, that the author's Brideshead script wasn't actually used in the 1981 production starring Jeremy Irons and Anthony Andrews, Mortimer's concerns with staying true to the original story will be seconded by many. The original series was hailed as a landmark event when it was aired in the U.S. on PBS's Great Performances program and, for many in North America, was the "gateway drug" that hooked them on British television drama for a lifetime.
In 30 Years of British Television (just a gentle plug, readers; there now, it's all over), Mortimer recalls his visits to San Francisco this way:
"I have this odd effect on San Francisco because when I did Brideshead they had Lord Sebastian look-alike contests, and all the young men were carrying their Teddy bears down to the marina. Now they have Hilda [Rumpole’s wife] look-alike contests."
No, not entirely relevant I'll grant you, but it's such a whimsical image to be left with, don't you think?
Good heavens — you quit your obsessing over all things British television for a year or two to go off and try to be a productive member of society (no, it DIDN’T take, thank you for asking), and you miss a televisual act of cannibalism that, quite frankly, would be more at home between the covers of my other book (The New Horror Handbook, and again, thank you for asking).
It seems back in January the helpful souls at PBS decided Masterpiece Theater needed some sprucing up. Polarization being all the rage these days, they opted to separate that nearly 40-year-old institution into three seasons throughout the year. So we now have:
Masterpiece Classic (Jan. to May): Like Coca Cola Classic, it’s essentially all the costume dramas you remember this series for — a lot of Jane Austen characters waiting around for the right to vote, earn a living, and to never again see a dance floor after their first marriage.
Masterpiece Mystery! (Summer): Ah, the very act of cannibalism to which I was referring at the outset. Here we find all of the mystery series that once had an entire year to unfold. I distinctly remember the groundwork being laid for this shotgun wedding back in 1995 when Prime Suspect 4 was shoe-horned into Masterpiece Theater, presumably for budgetary reasons. For all the Charles Dickens and Jane Austen characters who regularly inhabited that space, it must’ve been a bit like training one’s replacement. Fortunately this year we get the inevitable Inspector Lewis series, which sees everyone’s favorite Inspector Morse sidekick play the crusty detective with a heart of gold. The latest news? On May 15th, Alan Cumming (X-Men: X2) was announced to be the host for Masterpiece Mystery.
Masterpiece Contemporary (Fall): Here we will find stories that take place in modern times. First up: The Last Enemy, which “follows a group of characters — including a scientist, an aid worker, and a desperate father — who are each trying to deal with crises in their own lives when they unwittingly get caught up in a global mystery.” Admittedly pretty vague stuff. Still, it stars Robert Carlyle (Cracker: “To Be a Somebody,” Trainspotting), one of the best British actors of the day.
While these changes are all very wonderful, one can’t help feeling something like the parent of a child who has just entered those awkward teen years. Only yesterday they were such sweet, enjoyable creatures. And now? Now you just hope they won’t dabble in drugs, knock over that antique vase, or resort to cannibalism. Oops, Masterpiece Mystery, too late.
…of one of the most obscure British TV imports I’ve ever seen in the US.
Back in my native Washington DC, we had the good fortune to have three PBS stations. Channel 26 was the Captain of the Football Team, Channel 22 was everyone’s shy but brainy Best Friend, and Channel 32 was the oddball new kid whom nobody really understood. Where the first two were happy to provide those great British crowd-pleasers like Are You Being Served and Mystery, Channel 32 scraped around the back of the PBS catalog until it came up with the little shows that no one else seemed to want. The Scottish crime drama Taggart was one (don’t forget to check out a classic interview with Taggart star Blythe Duff in 30 Years of British Television- your pushy author).
The other was a real head-scratcher that rejoiced in the brilliantly understated name Capital City. Set in London’s financial district during the ’80s, the program followed the lives and loves of the brilliant young things on the trading desks of an investment bank.
I believe it ran for just two seasons, but oh the places we went in that short expanse of time. More importantly, what dramas we witnessed. The suddenly worthless securities that dashing young Declan (Douglas Hodge) was landed with; the vicious sniping between trading floor manager Sylvia (Emily Bolton) and nearly everyone else — magic!
For its small but loyal following (I’m proud to say that I have both seasons on DVD, thank you very much), the joy of this program is the way financial crises were played for high drama. Characters would enter a room and gravely announce that the Smith-Benson deal had just fallen through in television tones normally reserved for a shifty young man in tweeds and spats telling a room full of relations that Mr. Plumstead’s been found dead in the back garden. Riveting stuff. (Check out the clip above for a taste.)
So yes, darn it, the world does seem to have landed itself in a pickle of a predicament over these dodgy loans and credit cards filled to bursting, but it also brings to mind a gentler, greedier time when one brave little program that could dared us to weep for the movers and shakers who made it all possible.
There’s definitely something to be said for sharing one of your great passions with a group of like-minded individuals. That’s why I’ve been thinking of getting together with other British television fans here in the Denver suburbs.
This is a lot easier thanks to that brilliant rallying point known as Meetup.com. Simply log on to this site (www.meetup.com), create an account, and it will tell you how many other Meetup users are dying to get together with others to discuss your favorite shows, or even have something like a Britcom night! Of course this site also can be used to find new friends interested in any number of other subjects, too. Why not give it a whirl and let me know how it goes.
Many American viewers may not realize that the actress recently ended a 22-year run on British soap EastEnders playing matriarch Pauline Fowler. (EastEnders has aired on several PBS stations on and off throughout the United States.)
One of the interesting things in this piece is the brief glimpse we get of her longtime friendship with Are You Being Served’s Mr. Humphries, John Inman.
“John became a friend and he only lived down the road from me. We’d meet up and have a drink or go for a curry. I used to love going around to his house on his birthday because John would have friends around and I’d sit and listen to all their great showbiz stories.”
While away covering a trade show this week, I had the opportunity to visit my parents’ house, and to go through some of my old things there.
To my surprise I stumbled across the original cassette tape recordings of my interviews with John Inman (Are You Being Served), John Mortimer (creator of Rumpole of the Bailey), Stephanie Cole (Waiting For God), Blythe Duff (Taggart), and one or two other British television stars who appear in 30 Years of British Television. I had long thought these items lost.
Now that I know I have access to them (I didn’t risk taking them back on the plane through the X-ray machines lest they be damaged), I would very much like to have these historic recordings — all of which took place in the 1990s — transfered to a digital format and posted on the 30 Years of British Television Web site. The John Inman recording is especially prized, of course, since that wonderful entertainer passed away last March.
Would any British television fans out there be interested in downloading these interviews in the form of a podcast, or would you be more interested in listening to a few short interview sound bites on the Web site itself? Though I haven’t had the chance to listen to them recently, I’m sure the audio quality isn’t going to be brilliant, but it is still an opportunity to listen to these great personalities.
